Sports Car Club of America

NEWS

TOPEKA, Kan. (August 25, 2010) – In a change from last year’s snowy weather, a move from October to August meant that a record-setting 74 competitors would participate in the SCCA RallyCross National Championship presented by Subaru and Heuberger Motors, August 21-22, under temperatures in excess of 90 degrees alongside the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains. At the end of the weekend, eight participants walked away from the U.S. Truck Driving School in Fountain, Colo., as SCCA RallyCross National Champions.

Under the RallyCross National Championship format, each competitor turned laps on three different circuits laid out on the facility 25-minutes south of Colorado Springs. Each of the classes in the Stock, Prepared, and Modified classes turned four runs on Saturday morning around a tract designed by Matt Dahn and Mike Eckert, with some assistance from Brent Blakely. Blakely then reconfigured the course for the afternoon session, where the Stock and Prepared classes took three laps, but the Modified category only managed one run before darkness ended the day.

On Sunday morning, the Modified category classes led off the morning with four runs on a circuit designed by Ken Cashion and Blakely, followed by two runs each from the Prepared and Stock categories to give every competitor nine runs in total. The lowest aggregate total of the runs, including two-second penalties for every cone hit throughout the weekend, determined the winners.

The Modified category, containing both the Modified Two (for two-wheel drive cars) and Modified Four (for all-wheel drive machines) hosted two of the largest three classes of the weekend.

In Modified Two, Denver’s Jonathan McGrew led on time in his 2006 Honda Civic Si until the eighth round, when Cashion’s run in his 2007 Honda Racing HPD/Team Dynamics Honda Civic Si was 1.384-seconds quicker to take the lead. At the conclusion, Cashion led by 0.989-second, but McGrew’s two-cone penalty in the first run pushed the gap to 4.989-seconds for Cashion’s Modified Two National Championship. Harold Denham, of Holliston, Mass., Chris Blake, of Golden, Colo., and Eric Adams, of Laramie, Wyo., completed the trophy positions in the 19-car class.

Chris O’Driscoll, of Leadville, Colo., defended his Modified Four title with a 10.238-second victory after nine rounds and the assessment of penalties. O’Driscoll’s 2007 Subaru WRX topped the 14-car field, with Denver’s Max Johnson his closest competition in a 1995 Flatirons Tuning/Suba Performance Subaru Impreza. Nathanael Usher (2002 Subaru WRX Wagon), of Lansing, Mich., and Eric Genack (2003 Subaru Impreza WRX) fought for the final two trophy spots, with Usher finishing 0.243-second ahead of Genack for third.

Both the Prepared and Stock categories featured classes that weren’t decided until the cone penalties were assessed.

In the 18-car Prepared All class, Dahn, of Milford, Michigan, completed nine runs in his 2003 Performance Theory/ATS Subaru WRX 1.658-seconds faster than Ryan Gates, of Colorado Springs. Dahn, however, clipped a cone on his seventh run – a feat that Gates managed to avoid in his 2002 Heuberger Subaru/subarupartsstore.net Subaru WRX wagon, landing Gates the Prepared All National Championship by a final adjusted time of 0.342-second. Cody Hatfield (2006 AWDPirates.net Subaru Impreza), of Thornton, Colo., was third, nearly four seconds behind the leaders. Bill Martin, of Ridgecrest, Calif., was fourth in a Mitsubishi Evo, followed by Carlos Filipe, of Orlando, Fla., in a 1998 CMFRacing.com Subaru Impreza.

Edwin Cunnel, also of Birmingham, did bring a National Championship back to Alabama, taking the Prepared Rear title by an adjusted 11.573-seconds in a 1975 Element Garage BMW 2002. He bested Jerred Burnard, of Colorado Springs, driving a 1985 Manic Motorsports Toyota MR2.

The Stock All class was a three-driver battle that wasn’t decided until factoring in cone penalties. Jason Staats, of Keizer, Ore., topped Gary Marascola, of Windsor, Colo., by just 0.729-second over the course of the nine runs, with Jakub “Kubo” Kordisch, of Brighton, Colo., just 1.059-seconds behind Staats. Cones would become the story of the Stock All class, as Marascola had a clean weekend, with Staats clipping one and Kordisch collecting six. At the conclusion, Marascola claimed the title by 1.109-seconds in a 2009 Subaru Impreza, followed by Staats’ 2005 Entek International/Primitive Racing Subaru STi and Kordisch’s 2000 Subaru Impreza. Chris Staats, sharing a car with Jason, finished fourth.